Plant functional group drives the community structure of saprophytic fungi in a grassland biodiversity experiment

Francioli, Davide; Rijssel, Sophia Q. van; Ruijven, Jasper van; Termorshuizen, A.J.; Cotton, T. E. Anne; Dumbrell, Alex J.; Raaijmakers, Jos M.; Weigelt, Alexandra; Mommer, Liesje

doi:10.1007/s11104-020-04454-y

Cited by 59 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 93 publications

(113 reference statements)

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“…Saprotrophs also showed distinct communities in roots of crop species. In line with this study, Francioli et al 75 have shown plant species is the main factor in shaping the root-associated saprophytic fungal community. They argued that the variation between communities may be driven by differences in C:N ratio and root lignin content.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Characterising the effect of crop species and fertilisation treatment on root fungal communities

Soonvald

Loit

Runno-Paurson

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Information about the root mycobiome may improve the overall quality of the plants and contribute to a valuable strategy to enhance sustainable agriculture. Therefore, we assessed differences in fungal community diversity and composition in the roots of potato, wheat and barley grown under mineral nitrogen fertilisation at five rates, with and without farmyard manure amendment. The same factorial combination of treatments has been used since 1989. Species richness and diversity, as well as community composition, of different fungal guilds were characterised using Illumina MiSeq sequencing of the ITS2 region. Crop species was the main factor determining overall fungal richness and diversity, with wheat showing the highest, and potato the lowest, richness and diversity. Pathogen diversity indices were highest in wheat plots amended with farmyard manure, whereas the lowest values were observed for potato roots. Fertilisation treatments and the interaction between crop species and fertilisation had the strongest impact on arbuscular mycorrhiza and saprotroph diversity. Crop species also determined the composition of the overall fungal community and that of fungal guilds, whereas fertilisation treatment had only a minor effect. This study highlights crop species as the main driver in shaping root fungal diversity and composition under the same environmental conditions.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Characterising the effect of crop species and fertilisation treatment on root fungal communities

Soonvald

Loit

Runno-Paurson

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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“…While plant species identity and phylogeny appear to contribute to patterns of plant–fungal relations, plant functional traits are also likely to mediate these interactions. While the abundance of different groups of fungi, such as saprotrophs, pathotrophs and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), have been shown to be related to plant traits (Eissenstat et al ., 2015; Semchenko et al ., 2018; Francioli et al ., 2020), others have failed to find relationships between plant traits and fungal community composition (Barberán et al ., 2015; Leff et al ., 2018). This is despite many known interactions between plants and fungi, such as the ‘collaboration gradient’ (Bergmann et al ., 2020), which defines how plant tissue construction strategies influence nutrient foraging via associations with fungal symbionts (Eissenstat et al ., 2015; Chen et al ., 2018; Zhang et al ., 2019), and the growing understanding of the importance of root exudates in shaping fungal communities (Hu et al ., 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, through their many complex interactions with plant roots, fungi aid plant nutrient acquisition (Averill et al ., 2019), pathogen (Marx, 1972) and drought resistance (Jayne & Quigley, 2014), and play a key role in shaping plant productivity and community dynamics (Mommer et al ., 2018; Liang et al ., 2020). Given this, understanding the key determinants of the diversity and composition of rhizosphere fungal communities is recognised as an important goal in terrestrial ecology (Singh et al ., 2004; Francioli et al ., 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Root traits explain rhizosphere fungal community composition among temperate grassland plant species

et al. 2020

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Summary While it is known that interactions between plants and soil fungi drive many essential ecosystem functions, considerable uncertainty exists over the drivers of fungal community composition in the rhizosphere. Here, we examined the roles of plant species identity, phylogeny and functional traits in shaping rhizosphere fungal communities and tested the robustness of these relationships to environmental change. We conducted a glasshouse experiment consisting of 21 temperate grassland species grown under three different environmental treatments and characterised the fungal communities within the rhizosphere of these plants. We found that plant species identity, plant phylogenetic relatedness and plant traits all affected rhizosphere fungal community composition. Trait relationships with fungal communities were primarily driven by interactions with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, and root traits were stronger predictors of fungal communities than leaf traits. These patterns were independent of the environmental treatments the plants were grown under. Our results showcase the key role of plant root traits, especially root diameter, root nitrogen and specific root length, in driving rhizosphere fungal community composition, demonstrating the potential for root traits to be used within predictive frameworks of plant–fungal relationships. Furthermore, we highlight how key limitations in our understanding of fungal function may obscure previously unmeasured plant–fungal interactions.

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“…Similarly, 'current forb' soils with a legacy of previous grasses on them had very different fungal communities than 'current forb' soils with a legacy of previous forbs. Other work has shown that plant family and functional group can explain a large portion of the variation in fungal community structure (31,40,41) and that this division may play a prominent role in plant community dynamics in natural grasslands (7,42). This is likely due to species in these groups having higher similarities within than between groups in terms of functional traits (43,44) and chemical composition (45,46), which play an important role in shaping soil legacies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Persistence of plant-mediated microbial soil legacy effects in soil and inside roots

Hannula

Heinen

Huberty

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Plant-soil feedbacks are shaped by microbial legacies previous plants leave in the soil. We tested the persistence of such soil legacies after subsequent colonization by the same or other plant species, and whether the microbiome created by the previous plant explains current plant growth. Legacies of previous plants were detectable in soil fungal communities several months after their removal while concomitantly the effect of the current plant amplified in time. Remarkably, bacterial legacies faded away rapidly in the soil and bacterial communities were selected strongly by plant currently growing in the soil. Both fungal and bacterial legacies wrought by the previous plant were conserved inside the root endophytic compartment of the current plant and these endophytes affected significantly the plant growth. Hence, microbial soil legacies present at the time of plant establishment play a vital role in shaping plant growth even as the composition gradually changes in the soil after subsequent plant colonization, as they are taken up as endophytes in the plant. This suggests that plant-soil feedbacks may be partly mediated by a relatively stable endophytic community acquired in early ontogeny while the effects of previous plants detected on soil microbiomes vary between organisms studied. We further show that plants growing in their own soils harbor different endophytic microbiomes than plants growing in soils with legacy of other plants and that especially grasses are sensitive to species specific fungal pathogens while all plant species have less endophytic Streptomycetes when growing in their own soil. In conclusion, we show that soil legacies wrought by previous plants can remain present in the soils and inside the roots for months, even when subsequent plants colonize the soil and that these legacies also substantially modulate the plant growth.

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Plant functional group drives the community structure of saprophytic fungi in a grassland biodiversity experiment

Cited by 59 publications

References 93 publications

Characterising the effect of crop species and fertilisation treatment on root fungal communities

Characterising the effect of crop species and fertilisation treatment on root fungal communities

Root traits explain rhizosphere fungal community composition among temperate grassland plant species

Persistence of plant-mediated microbial soil legacy effects in soil and inside roots

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